1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and device for estimating and compensating the IQ imbalance which is introduced on an RF multicarrier signal received via a channel on a direct conversion analog receiver, for example, a zero-IF receiver.
2. Description of the Related Technology
A method for detecting and correcting IQ imbalance in a direct conversion receiver is known from WO-A-03/003686 (published after the earliest priority date of this application). A group of radio frequency (RF) pilot signals are received in the direct conversion receiver and conveyed to an in-phase (I) branch and a quadrature-phase (Q) branch of the receiver. The signals on the in-phase and quadrature-phase branches are mixed in the analogue domain to form baseband in-phase and quadrature-phase signal components. In the digital domain, IQ-imbalance in the pilot signals is detected by averaging the Q-component over a number of consecutive pilot signals. On the basis of the averaged Q-component, which represents an estimate of the IQ-imbalance, a correction signal is created which is fed back to the analogue domain for correcting the future baseband signal components to achieve a 90° phase difference.
The method known from WO-A-03/003686 has the disadvantage that the detection of IQ-imbalance by averaging over a plurality of consecutive pilot signals is too slow for extensive data transmission. Furthermore, the method known from WO-A-03/003686 only compensates IQ phase imbalance, not IQ amplitude imbalance.